


interlude: song of the sea, fair nereid

by niuu



Series: interlude: a retelling of fairytales [2]
Category: Den lille Havfrue | The Little Mermaid - Hans Christian Andersen, Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, Original Work, The Little Mermaid - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fairytale Retellings, Internalized Homophobia, Mermaids, Misunderstandings, Oceans, Possibly Unrequited Love, Tragedy, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:54:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25992466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niuu/pseuds/niuu
Summary: My heart bleeds — moonlight that pours liquid silver into the heart of the sea. It overflows like my father’s wine cup, constant and reborn every night as he renews his inner enigmas, praying to gods who do not exist. You rival any god, little oyster.
Relationships: Den lille Havfrue | The Little Mermaid/Prins | Prince, Den lille Havfrue | The Little Mermaid/Prinsesse | Princess, Prins | Prince/Prinsesse | Princess (Den lille Havfrue | The Little Mermaid)
Series: interlude: a retelling of fairytales [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1902544
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	interlude: song of the sea, fair nereid

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FrostedLillies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrostedLillies/gifts).



> The sequel to "interlude: sea maiden, tears of pearl." Lily, my beloved! I am gifting this to you because of your support and because you deserve all the lovely things the world can offer! You are wonderful and brilliant and I care for you so! I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I had fun writing it! ♡
> 
> Lines inspired by quotes: 
> 
> “In my soul’s most treacherous space a sting is born; / That poison of mine enlightens me, knows its skill. / In myself I renew my gods, my enigmas…”  
> — **Paul Valéry** , tr. by W.M. Stewart, from Dialogues; “The Young Fate.”
> 
> “We have so many gods / and none of them / can be trusted.”  
> — **Hafizah Geter** , from “Fajr,” Un-American.
> 
> "The smell of night, inhaling stars."  
> — **Unknown**.
> 
> “[ . . . ] the moon’s blood is the sea.”  
> — **Anne Michaels** , from What the Light Teaches.
> 
> “It seems to me: the sea and myself — and nothing else.”  
> — **Anton Chekhov**.
> 
> Notes:
> 
> — I was inspired by Princess Alexandria of Denmark’s wedding dress for the princess’s own wedding dress. Considering that the original tale is set in Denmark, I saw it fitting.  
> — There is a lot of symbolism in this piece and it was done deliberately.  
> — There is a bit of dubious content when it comes to kissing, but it doesn’t go any further than that.

♆

My heart bleeds — moonlight that pours liquid silver into the heart of the sea. It overflows like my father’s wine cup, constant and reborn every night as he renews his inner enigmas, praying to gods who do not exist. You rival any god, little oyster. The truth is that we have so many gods but they cannot be trusted. My tears are of mist and fire, wept by the moon as I gaze out at the water from my chambers.

I beg for your forgiveness tonight. I have wept for seven days and nights in hopes that I would see you again. Forgive me, my love. _Please._ I swear on everything that is left of me that I didn't mean to hurt your fragile, sea-blessed heart.

The sea seems to roil with your woe. You stir the lachrymose depths with your azure melancholy and turquoise desolation. If one were to lap up your sea of sorrow, it would taste of tears — the distant tang of bitter memories and salt-crusted regrets of having met me.

You may regret me, but I shall never forsake you. My hands shake as I pour translucent tea into delicate porcelain, the subtle smell of jasmine making my head spin. I stare into my half-full cup to find where crooked, nostalgic thoughts; storms that reveal the mirror of the soul; and intoxicating daydreams laze in hopes that they can provide me with answers. I find that I cannot see my future anymore. There is only emptiness. And I do not know how to feel about that revelation.

They dressed me up in lace and white, my ocean nymph. Adorned me in a wreath of orange blossoms, myrtle, and roses. Collared me in glistening jewels. Smothered me in tulle and moire. Killed me with kind words and lilting praises that spilled from their cracked lips. 

I am a bride-to-be. A fair maiden in white. A blushing princess with eyes only for her prince. I have never read any fairytale where her eyes wandered to someone else. This is a romance that shall be engraved in the stories, will go down in history, memorialized for those who yearn for their own happy end.

A prince and his princess. A king and his queen. Yet I wish I could be _yours_ instead. 

I long to caress the spate of your prismatic scales. I want to touch that milk-white cheek of yours, trace the exquisite architecture of your cheekbones. I desire so many things, and yet I can never allow them to escape from the deepest recesses of my heart. 

This desire of mine is potent. It is as addicting as my father's alcohol, but poisonous as wolfsbane. My father would recoil with disgust if he found out how I felt about you. _I_ recoil with disgust at the mere thought of my feelings, but I cannot help but love you nonetheless. 

Gilt and gold spits from the chandeliers above as I descend down the aisle. My face is veiled — as if my purity would be sullied from someone seeing me, as if I am a gemstone so beautiful I must be hidden — and my train is held up by three faceless maidens who trail behind me. 

I am pale and wane and they call me beautiful. They call me immaculate. I can hear their whispers. Feel their envy. Yet I would rather switch places with either of them than stand here beside this man. 

Your prince's fox-fur curls glint like celestial fire. The slant of his bone-white smile secures my barren future as he takes my trembling hand in his. I can not hear anything, but I feel my lips shape the words as our vows are spoken under an angel-seated fresco. 

My own smile is weak as shafts of winter light. My heart is already lost to sea, adrift and uncertain. It sank to the bottom of the subaqueous abyss a long time ago when I first met you, water droplets trembling in your lashes and your voice resounding in my ears like the crashing of waves. Little singer, how could you not realize that was when I first lost my heart to you? 

I marry blue blood, and the quill scrawling out my story stops writing, lain to rest in a pool of midnight ink. Perhaps I never had one to begin with. Perhaps I was always going to be a story untold, not worthy enough to be remembered. Not someone with conquest and innovation to my name.

_Just a girl who fell in love with the cold, dead heart of the sea._

His kiss burns. It burns and burns into me. I cannot feel anything as his people cheer, as I am led to a ship with merriment and opulence. Little mermaid, I cannot feel anything. 

There is dancing and life and music and everything blurs into one kaleidoscopic vision, sharp at the edges. It hurts. I do not know why. I stare over the edge of the ship as we sail into the unknown, the sanctity of night breathing into me. I inhale stars.

My tears fall into the churning ocean, little messengers that call for you to rise up from the depths and save me. I cannot stop them from flowing. I weep by the ocean, my veil obscuring my face. 

Your prince comes near, drawn in by my deathly-pale beauty. My oceanid, I must confess how I silently begged him to stop touching me as he kissed me again. He seems to love me. But when I look into his eyes, his gaze is faraway, as though he is looking for the next ornament he can collect. He leaves me alone with flushed cheeks and swollen lips, and I want to collapse and never awaken again. 

I turn back to the sea, face damp with tears. I do not know how long I stand there, staring unseeing at the wobbling reflection of the sickle moon on the water. Does time mean anything anymore?

You come, bobbing in the froth. Rising from the surface in all your oceanic glory. You bear no gifts this time. Instead, your eyes are sharp and rage tightens your ethereal features. 

I do not say anything, and nor do you. We stare at each other with only the moon as witness. The moonlight washes over you, making you look like a ghost drowned at sea. You are still beautiful and I almost tell you so, but I catch the words between my teeth and shove them under my tongue. I wonder absently what would happen if I dared to allow the words fly free. 

You pin me with your belligerent mien, and I am reminded that you are something primordial, birthed from something divine and behemoth. Your hair spools to your slender waist and your eyes are as gray as dove feathers, but they are so cold. It is like I am a stranger to you.

Finally, you speak. Your voice sounds like a tidal wave as it floods land. It crashes into my very being, carving what's left of me out and drowning it. My ears are muffled as though I am underwater. 

"If I can't have him, then neither can you," you hiss, seething as the ocean begins to swirl, waves surging and spitting foam into my face. 

I try to speak, but you do not allow me. Your voice softens, changing to a selcouth melody that calls me. My chest aches from the beauty of your song. I am caught in your thrall, ensnared like a fly in a web. My body moves for me, drawn to the sound. 

My mind is blank as I leap off the side of the ship into the sea. When I hit the surface, I regain control, but you are already dragging me down into the icy depths, spiteful in your glee. I thrash wildly like a fish caught in a net, arching my back as I instinctively try to escape from your bone-crushing grip.

My white dress blooms around me as I sink, my once pinned up hair billowing like seaweed. Moonlight quivers beneath the waves and I can see lights flickering as your prince and nobility panic, desperately trying to find me in the dark water. 

My mermaid looks at me, hands around my throat with bared teeth. She is beautiful and I love her. _I love you._ I love you so much that I am going to die for you. 

I am ready to surrender myself to the sea, but something holds me back for a moment. _I love you,_ the words whisper in my head, _and you don't know._

And so, I raise my eyes, blinking painfully at the saltwater and mouth four words. _I didn't want him._

Something shatters your cold facade. I do not know what to call this flicker of emotion that wells upon your elegant countenance. You release my throat and stare at me for what feels like an eternity. 

War rages in your heart, but it has calmed. The scintillation of starlight blazes above our heads as the water cocoons us in its embrace. The moon burns into us as it always has, but perhaps for the first time you finally feel warm. 

Pearls float to the surface as you begin to cry. Why do you look so sad, my love? I blink ever so slowly and feel your arms wind around my waist as you keep us suspended in the upside down colors of the universe, tail swishing in powerful motions. 

You bring us towards the surface as you swim upwards, almost . . . desperately. Why, though? I do not understand. Never have and never will. You do not love me and I love you. That is how it is. That is how things have always been. It feels as though something could change, but I am tired. I am too tired to fight anymore. 

Little mermaid, you have come back to me. But now I must leave you. The moon burns. It burns and burns into me, but it is such a wonderful feeling. I cannot feel anything as I drown, dressed in lace and white. White as your skin. White as the moonlight. 

I sing a rhapsody to the heart of the sea. Your heart. And you sing a threnody to me. But I do not stay and I cease to exist nevermore.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback and criticism are always welcome and in fact are encouraged. I honestly can’t believe I have to say this, but trolling and straight-up hate and negativity will not be tolerated. This may be fanfiction, but if you don’t have actual constructive criticism to give me and are just here to hate, I’m going to have to ask you to not read my works or refrain from commenting at all. Let’s all be civil people here.


End file.
